An information void in Mali as journalists are obstructed

Three weeks after France's military intervention in Mali,
the war remains largely "without
images and without facts," as described by Jean-Paul Mari, special envoy for the newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur. Although journalists have been
allowed to follow French and Malian forces into the towns that have been recovered
from armed Islamist groups, the real battlefields and front lines remain off
limits.

There have been no images of French special forces in action
except a few seconds of army video showing the launch of paratroopers in an
undisclosed location. No precise information on the number of military or
civilian casualties has been disclosed. According to French military sources,
one French soldier, dozens of Malian soldiers, and hundreds of terrorists have
been killed. However, no independent confirmation of these figures has been
possible due to lack of access.

Journalists have described being blocked
by the Malian military and kept in an information void. "Lots of new military roadblocks today Gao-Mopti axis," tweeted BBC
correspondent Mark Doyle on Thursday. "Journalists being stopped, harassed. No
way to run aspiring democracy. Bad PR."

In an interview broadcast by the public TV channel France 2 on
January 31, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian brushed aside the information
vacuum described by journalists. "They are angry? Let them remain angry," he bluntly
said while justifying the information blackout on safety grounds.

CPJ Europe Representative Marthoz is a Belgian journalist and longtime press freedom and human rights activist. He teaches international journalism at the Université catholique de Louvain and is a columnist for the Belgian daily Le Soir.